I'm worried about losing my data
Set up backups, sensible file organization and a data management plan before something goes wrong.
In short
Start here, today. List every place your research data currently lives, including laptops, external drives, cloud folders and paper notebooks. Next to each one, write whether a second copy exists somewhere else. This takes about 20 minutes.
After that, work through these steps. Choose one to jump to it.
Step by step
Tick each step as you finish it. Open a step for the how.
0 of 6 steps done
Keep three copies in more than one place
A good rule of thumb is to keep the original, a second copy on a separate device and a third copy somewhere else entirely, such as storage your university supports. Automate backups where you can, so they don't depend on remembering. Every so often, check that a backup actually opens.
Use storage your university approves
If your data include personal or sensitive information, your ethics approval will usually say where they may be stored. Ask your IT or research computing service which options are approved, secure and backed up. A personal cloud account may not meet those requirements.
Name and organize files consistently
Choose a folder structure and a naming pattern and stick to them, for example date, project, content and version: 2026-03-14_interviews_round2_v03. Keep raw data in a folder you never edit, and do all cleaning on copies, with the steps recorded in a script or a log.
Document as you go
Keep a README file that explains what each folder holds, what each variable means, units, codes for missing values and how the data were collected. Write it for someone who has never seen the project, because in two years that person will be you.
Write a short data management plan
Use a free tool such as the DMP Assistant, which was built for Canadian researchers, or your funder's template. Cover what data you'll collect, formats, storage and backup, who can access them, how long you'll keep them and whether they'll be shared or archived. Treat it as a living document and update it when the project changes.
Plan for the end of the project
Before you submit your thesis, decide what happens to the data. Your ethics approval and consent forms may set rules about how long you keep them and how they're destroyed. If you can share them, a repository that gives your dataset a persistent identifier makes it findable and citable. Ask your library which repositories it supports.
Is this you? Signs to look for
- Your only copy of the data is on your laptop, or on a USB stick in your bag.
- You have files called final, final2 and final_really_final.
- You couldn't say which version of the dataset your last analysis used.
- A funder or ethics board has asked for a data management plan and you're not sure what goes in one.
Why this happens
Data loss rarely comes from anything dramatic. It's a stolen bag, a spilled coffee, a drive that fails, a sync that overwrites the wrong version or simply forgetting what a file was. All digital storage degrades eventually. Losing months of work this way is a real risk in graduate school, and it's almost entirely preventable.
Good data management is mostly small habits: more than one copy in more than one place, consistent file names, and notes on what each variable means and how the data were cleaned. These habits pay off long before any disaster, because you can find things quickly and repeat your own analysis.
A data management plan puts those habits in writing. It describes how you'll organize, store, back up and eventually share or archive your data. In Canada, the federal research funding agencies have a research data management policy, and some funders ask for a plan as part of an application. Even when nobody requires one, a short plan written early is one of the most useful documents in your project.
Worth a look (6)
- Research data management guide, University of Calgary LibraryPlanning, documentation, sensitive data, FAIR principles and where to deposit data.
- Data management plans, University of Calgary LibraryWhat a plan covers, with links to the DMP Assistant, templates and examples.
- Data storage and backup, Oregon State University LibrariesShort, practical advice on copies, locations and checking that stored files are still intact.
- DMP AssistantA free, bilingual tool for writing a data management plan, developed for Canadian researchers.
- Sage Research MethodsBooks, case studies, videos and practice data sets on research methods, from interviews to regression. Your library usually provides access.
- PRISMAThe reporting guideline for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, with the checklist, flow diagram templates and extensions for scoping and other reviews. Many journals expect you to follow it.
When to bring someone in
Your library's research data management team can review a draft plan and suggest repositories. Your IT or research computing service can tell you which storage is approved and backed up. If your data involve people, check any change to storage or sharing with your research ethics office first. If you do lose data, stop using the affected drive and ask IT for help before trying recovery software yourself.
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